ChaCha's platform allows brands to respond to questions

If you want to control your own destiny, in this case brand identity, a new platform from social platform ChaCha may help. This week the social question and answer platform launched an area which allows brands or businesses to respond to questions about them.

Responding to questions directly rather than allowing consumers to answer puts the brand or business in control of the message, although it doesn't give total control. Competitors, unhappy customers or thrilled customers can still post their opinions about the brand or company; that message may or may not be in line with the image the brand hopes to convey.

The ChaCha.me platform makes it possible for anyone with a ChaCha profile to answer questions directly; it is accessible through social networks Twitter and Facebook as well as the ChaCha website or iPhone and Droid Apps.

Grammy winner David Guetta is demonstrating the platform this week by answering questions from his fans on the platform. He will have his own page on the platform while he's answering questions.

"One of the most fundamentally appealing qualities of social sites like Twitter and Facebook is the notion that people care about what celebrities and friends are doing and sharing. ChaCha.me provides this forum for users, but also takes it to the next level with intimate Q&A interaction," said Scott Jones, CEO of ChaCha. "These ChaCha.me answers may flow into ChaCha's broad database so that those who are asking for answers from ChaCha will receive, in effect, certified answers directly. For example, ChaCha will now be able to return certain answers about David Guetta, directly from David himself."

Since launching ChaCha has answered more than 500 million questions from users. It provides answers free of charge and in real time to users.